Approximate
exchange rates, 1 local currency unit to UK£, for selected years and countries.
A range indicates fluctuation within that year. For
detailed exchange rate fluctuations in recent years see Economic Data. o = official rate. m = market
rate. a = actual rate, by price
comparison. Contemporary country names are used where territorial areas have
not significantly changed or there is a direct successor-State. Figures in blue are currency to US$
rate.

*In 1953 the Soviet administration of Czechoslovakia
effectively eliminated all cash savings by issuing a new Koruna currency at 50
old Koruna – 1 new Koruna (except for the first 300 Koruna which could be
exchanged at 5 to 1). Meanwhile all wages, pay ,taxes, was adjusted at 5 to 1.
Thus, effectively, all private cash savings above 300 Koruna were slashed in
value by 90%. The New Koruna was set at 12.50 = I Russian Rouble, with a
totally notional rate of 7.2 Koruna = 1 US Dollar.

*When Japan
first opened up to western trade (1858 Treaty of Edo)
they were unaware that they were trading their gold cobang coins with the west
at one third the actual price of gold in the west. By 1860 they realised this
mistake and adjusted the exchange rate.

**Thaler, 1820, Prussia, 7.0. The Thaler was made from silver mined in
Joachimsthaler, Bohemia, and like the Markbecame widely accepted,
this time across the Hispanic world and then became the US Dollar.

*See below, Roman and Frankish currency.

**See top of page, US$.

Roman and Frankish currency

Originally, currency units were based on weight of certain
metals, generally gold or silver; less commonly, copper or even iron, would be
used. Merchants could use these (supposedly
reliable, known) weights of silver/gold as an intermediary unit of value
when trading one commodity for another, so avoiding the complexity of multiple
barter rates. However over time the coinage was often debased (devalued); in
other words its valuable-metal content was reduced. This enabled the State to
extend its money supply, at the danger of creating inflation which would bring
the total national coinage back down to its original value in
commodity/purchasing power terms.

The Franks took over and continued many features of the Roman
currency system. They took the Roman pound weight, of 12 ounces, and made 1
pound weight of silver equal to 240 denarii (pennies).

12 denarii = 1 solidus

20 Solidi= 1 librae.

Denarius – penny (England) Pfennig (Germany).

Solidus – Shilling (England, Germany) –Sou (France)

Mediaeval devaluation

By the Middle Ages, a devaluation had occurred; to make
matters worse, this devaluation of the coinage was uneven across Europe. In
Cologne 240 pennies were now worth around 0.5 lbs of fine silver; this was
adopted as the new standard. 120 pennies
were then equivalent (in 1042)
to 1 Mark#.

#See above, Earlier
Currencies.

Weights

Quintale -Originally, 50 kilograms, or around 112 lbs
(one hundredweight). France, 1800s, Italy 1927. However the same name has been
used to denote a metric weight of 100 kg.